I saw this bit of news - while interesting, my understanding is that this is specific to the Refugee/Asylum seeker process, more particularly, their appeal hearings. As encouraging as it may sound, it is of little to no relevance to the current backlog for the IRCC.
Given the large influx of asylum seekers that crossed over from the US (
which, as per this article, amounts to nearly 57,000 people!), these temporary 'court rooms' are likely being set up to determine feasibility and process these asylum seekers to either regularize their status or order their removal. The language from the tender and the article itself hints at this specifically, which lines up with their intended use. It is highly unlikely that these facilities are going to be multi-functional for IRCC/IRB joint operations. A key line about the distinction between the IRB and the IRCC can be found
here.
The IRB reports to Parliament through the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, but the IRB remains independent from IRCC and the Minister.
I personally think that
the other RFP that is currently active and seeking bids, for a supplier of a
TBIPS, is actually the more promising one of the two. I read through the entire thing for a laugh and it looks like they're looking for a possible outside assistance to help process applications faster, which (and this is speculation) means they're likely to make a move towards all digital applications for all immigration types once the system hits capacity. This is important - one of the biggest obstacles right now with paper-based applications is that it requires someone to digitize portions (if not all) of an application for processing and storage. By making moves like this, it would be unsurprising if the end goal was to use TBIPS like these to help digitize all application procedures in the long run and unify the system.
It is likely that the current system for Express Entry, while reasonably quick, is either not scalable, nor sustainable at its current pace and growing volume. Couple this with unprecendented shutdown events (like COVID) and it's clear that the system needs work and has very clear bottlenecks that they're looking to circumvent with RFP's like this.
So in a way, it's a good thing that the government is looking at making the process more efficient long-term, though it is sad that it was a COVID (reactive) based and not a proactive decision to do this.
Quoted for emphasis. Think some people have been spoiled with instant gratification and the flawed/misconstrued "the customer is always right" way of thinking. These things take time.
I don't know, I'm personally trying to be empathetic about this because it's clear that folks are in a lot of pain and suffering, and rightfully so - the family sponsorship section right now is a miserable place, filled with a lot of people forcibly apart from their loved ones with no end in sight and little to no communication from the government about any of their applications. I can understand their frustration and I would be lying if I said I wasn't upset about the whole situation; I was to be married in June this year and I was actually planning to have had the process for spousal sponsorship started this month, but, well... we can imagine how it all turned out. However, the nice part about all this is that it showed me why I made the right choice of partner and her consideration throughout this whole affair is what makes me not doubt why she is 'the one' for me.
The citizenship application to me is secondary in this whole affair; after all, what good is a Canadian passport when I cannot travel? or the ability to vote with elections a good few years away? In this current environment, I am thankful to have a roof over my head, a decent job, a paid off car, food in my fridge and my health, which is more than can be said for a lot of folks out there right now who were hit hard by COVID. I think that maybe my problem is that as an immigrant, I never forgot the hardship, but that's just me.
